Bill Brown

Bill Stivers Brown, 93, born Sept. 24, 1926, at Mount Vernon to George Coleman Brown and Georgia Eunice Stivers Brown, passed away Wednesday, April 29, 2020.

Bill lived a full life, with a personality bigger than life, always with a smile, joke or story to tell. A professed Irishman, who kissed the blarney stone, he would occasionally sing you an Irish song.

He is preceded in death by his parents, an older brother, Joe Brown, and younger sister, Judy Brown Caraway.

Bill was extremely proud of his family. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn Woodson Brown. They are blessed with five children, Mika (Herb) Hyman, Tim O. (Arleen) Brown, Katy (Joe) Spake, Lynette Clayton and Steve (Mary) Clayton; 16 grandchildren; and 20 great-grandchildren.

He grew up in Conway playing football and was on the boxing team while attending Conway High School. While still in high school, Arkansas State Teachers College (now UCA), selected him to join their boxing team to compete in the AAU Tournament in Little Rock as a 16-year-old, 147-pound welter weight division.

As a senior in high school, he volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps in February, 1944. After graduation on June 7, 1944, he was called into service during World War II.

After basic training and gunnery training in Denver and Merced Air Base in California, he was sent to the South Pacific as a tail gunner on B-25 bombers in November 1944. Bill spent two years during WWII in the south Pacific flying missions over Wake Island, Leyte Island, Okinawa, Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal. He was honorably discharged in December 1946.

After the war, he returned to attend and play football at Arkansas State Teachers College in Conway. He played football in 1947 through 1948 and competed on the boxing team in 1948.

The 1947 team went undefeated, won the Arkansas Inter-Collegiate Conference Championship, and accepted an invitation to play in the Kickapoo Bowl in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Bill boxed in the Mid-South Golden Gloves as a heavy weight and was runner-up in the championship in Memphis in 1948.

He left college during 1949 and 1950 as a member of the Arkansas National Guard that was put on ready alert for the Korean conflict, but was never called to duty. During those years he married Betty Jean Roark and they had their first child, Mika Jean in 1950. Later Tim O’Neil in 1954 and Katy Elizabeth in 1956.

Bill then returned to college at ASTC and played football in the 1951 and 1952 seasons. After the 1952 season, he was invited to tryout with the Chicago Bears of the National Football League.

During his senior year in 1952-53, he was elected president of the Student Government Association for ASTC and also elected overall president of all the state of Arkansas SGA. He graduated in May 1953.

In 1953, Bill and family moved to Jonesboro where he founded Brown’s Graduation Supplies. BGS represented Herff Jones class ring company and Walsworth Publishing yearbook company, while also selling graduation announcements, caps and gowns, and diplomas.

Bill was named Walsworth Publishing Co. “Man of the Year” in 1978 and inducted into the Herff Jones “Hall of Fame” in 1998. He was the first company in Arkansas to start designing and selling championship rings in the 1970s.

Brown’s Graduation Supplies has continued to serve Arkansas schools for over 65 years honoring high school and college graduates.

Bill was very active as a Jonesboro citizen, serving as president of the Exchange Club of Jonesboro, president of the Northeast Arkansas Shrine Club, president of Jonesboro PTA and a Scottish Rite Mason during his life.

He is a long-standing member of the Jonesboro Country Club and lifetime member of the Elks Lodge. He was a founding member of the Arkansas State University Indian Club in 1956, serving as its inaugural vice president followed by a two-year term as president.

He served as an advisor in forming the UCA Letterman’s Club and was a life member of the Purple Circle. Bill was proud to be a member of Pi Kappa Alpha and the Red Wolf Foundation.

He was currently serving as a senior warden of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Jonesboro.

Memorial services will be family only because of COVID-19.

A virtual memorial is being planned, please send an email to timobrown@brownsgrad.com to be notified when completed.

Memorial gifts can be given in his honor to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 531 W. College Ave., Jonesboro 72401 or Pi Kappa Alpha Scholarship Fund, 1410 Franklin St., Jonesboro 72401.